Listen how Ariana learned to foster a more spiritual view of a dog to help find a permanent home for it

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The Christian Science Church – a part of the Canberra community. Members share testimonies and talk about their lives as Christian Scientists.

This article, A Prayer and a Cat, is by Debbie who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She describes how her prayers for the world also resulted in healing for a friend’s cat.

I would like to share a healing that happened some years ago but it’s one that has meant a lot to me.

At the time I was working as a teacher in a local primary school. There was one particular colleague that I sat with sometimes at lunch; she often talked to me about her cat, Hershey, who seemed to be a big part of her life. However, at this particular time much of her conversation was about her upcoming trip to the US – a holiday for which they had been saving for a long time.

One day I walked into the staff room to find this friend crying gently while she ate her sandwich. I sat with her and asked what had upset her. She said that Hershey was sick and the vet had said he would die any day. She was supposed to leave for the US in a few days and no cattery would take a cat that was about to die. The kindest thing to do, the vet said, was to put him to sleep before she left.

My friend couldn’t bring herself to put her beloved cat down and felt guilty that she was leaving him when he was so ill. Yet the holiday couldn’t be cancelled at this late date.

Without thinking too much I said: “Would you like me to mind Hershey?” Immediately she jumped at this idea and within the minute it was settled. She said she understood that he would not be alive when she returned but that at least he could go in his own time and in comfort. I agreed.

Two days later Hershey was delivered to my place. I admit I was not prepared for the sight of him. He lay motionless in his basket; he was skin and bones with dull tufty fur and sore spots; his eyes remained closed. I was informed that he needed his own quiet, dark room with no interruptions except for his medication. I had not considered the issue of medication. He had so many! She explained that Hershey had an immune deficiency condition – a cat’s version of AIDS she said. We installed Hershey in his room and she said her good-byes.

For two days I tried to give Hershey his medication but it seemed to cause him so much stress. I couldn’t see the point so I stopped. I had been brought up in Christian Science and had always solved problems quickly through prayer. Prayer for me was not a passive asking God for help but an active change of base in my thinking and spiritual reasoning.

There had been a lot of news coverage at this time around the issue of AIDS and I had been praying about this. In my reasoning I went back to my basic beliefs: I believed that there was a controlling order or principle to the universe and that principle was Love – another name for God. A God of love I reasoned could not make a dangerous universe; that a God of Love protected creation, it didn’t expose it to harm. I had proved many times that holding to spiritual truths, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, resolved inharmonious situations.

Now I applied this reasoning to Hershey. He was part of Love’s creation and I knew this Love was a powerful force for good. In the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes: You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness (p208) so I embraced Hershey in my thought in this way. I didn’t dwell on him, but I held to this idea every time I did think of him. I felt safe that he was safe.

Very quickly he began to respond. In a day or so he was up and walking about his room; another day or two he was out and exploring the house.

At the end of two weeks my friend returned and phoned to see how things had gone with Hershey. She was very surprised to hear that he was ready to be picked up. When she arrived to collect him he was sitting on the back of the lounge in the sun looking out the window. He was plump and healthy, his fur was flawless and sleek and shiny, and he had a playful sparkle in his eyes. He was very glad to be going home.

Sometimes when I pray for the world I am tempted to wonder: Are my prayers doing any good? This experience with Hershey gave me further proof that spiritual truths are powerful, more powerful than material evidence, and that prayers are effective in bringing about harmony in any situation – even those given up as hopeless. I continue to be grateful for all that I am learning in my on-going study of Christian Science.

On Thursday 19 November a Thanksgiving Service was held by the members of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. Many in the congregation gave thanks for the good in their lives:

Gratitude always comes to mind when moving in nature and having close contact with the animal kingdom as there is a certain sense of a universal language of good.

At the moment we are enjoying two horses grazing our paddocks. Last autumn one of them hobbled around on three legs and seemed to be in pain. I spoke to the owner, someone who informed me that she could not afford a vet and could not do anything for the horse. The condition worsened and the leg became very swollen and the horse lost all ability to move around.

When I became aware of this situation early one morning, I felt very alarmed, then went into the house to pray until I saw the right idea of horse. By this I mean that I cleared my consciousness of all that my physical senses were telling me about the situation and instead affirmed the true nature of a horse being foremost a spiritual idea held in a state of perfection within the thought of infinite Mind or God. I spent the next few hours in study of the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and regained a clearer conviction of the eternal Truth that: God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Gen 1: 31).

I also felt the need to pray about home and harmony and became totally absorbed in this Truth of an infinite Love caring for the whole of the universe. The sense that every idea was cared for replaced the dismay I had felt about the sight of this innocent creature.

In the evening both horses were grazing next to each other, the leg soon took on a normal appearance and there was no further difficulty. Several people commented about this surprising change.

About three years ago a young mum moved into the house next door to us. She had a couple of children, a cat and a dog. Soon her friend moved in too and he brought with him a tiny pup. These were both outside dogs but they had provided no shelter for them. They lived largely without human interaction in the bare backyard and it was the middle of a fierce and wet Canberra winter. In the mornings this tiny short-haired puppy could be seen sleeping curled and shivering in the long frosty grass. During the blustery winter days he cried and cried. When it rained he tried to stand under the larger dog for shelter and together they looked soaked and miserable.

I found this very difficult to witness day after day and I became incensed with indignation.

I succumbed to the error of believing that evil existed – in the form of my neighbours and that there were places where Love – another name for God – did not exist. If I believed that the neighbours were cruel and unloving then I was believing that God wasn’t all. I had to choose which idea I believed.

Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good (p393).

It was Spirit, God, who gave me the strength to resist this faulty thinking. I knew that there was no place where God was not. The Bible tells us that man is made in the image and likeness of God … of Love. The real man could not be unloving. So I held to this truth about man and acknowledged God’s love for all His creation. This dissolved the indignation. Within a day of this turn around in thinking the dogs were being invited inside and for the rest of the winter they were given shelter and companionship.

I have learned never to underestimate the power of practical applied scientific prayer!

Sometimes life throws up situations where you have to stick to what you understand to be true, even if the physical evidence is saying something else. I suppose that’s a bit like Copernicus, when he was starting to realize that the earth rotated around the sun, and not what was commonly thought, he had to use his scientific understanding and not the popular opinion or even his physical senses.

I’ve had experiences, simpler, humbler ones, where I’ve had to stick to a spiritual understanding of what was going on and not just accept the outward sense of things. One of these times was when my dog, Ben, was hit by a car.

Ben had suddenly spotted by husband across the road and run straight out into the path of a car. The car, a huge four-wheel drive, had hit him, spearing him into the ground, the full force being taken by his head. And although there were only a few external abrasions, it was obvious something serious had happened to his skull. We took him home and I began to pray immediately.

Now my younger daughter was, at that stage, growing up and she was making her own mind up about things, and we’ve always respected our girls’ rights to think differently to us. And she felt very strongly that we should take him to the vet. She was actually shouting at me, and it was not easy, but I over rode her objections, and I did this for several reasons. I had more faith in God than in man. I had seen so many healings in my life, particularly of animals, that I had absolute confidence that the dog could be healed, but also I actually did not think that he would survive through any other means. So I just went to God for help.

I prayed through the night to know only what God would know about the situation, to know that His divine care was ever present and all powerful, that divine Love did not cause this accident so it had no divine authority, that His almighty care surrounded us and governed the scene with harmony. And as the day dawned, it suddenly became clear that I absolutely believed, and understood, God’s unwavering, unchanging love for all of His creation; that the Ben’s life was safe because he had always been in God’s care, and I knew it and I believed it and understood it more than what the physical senses were telling me.

Shortly after, my daughter came in to check on him and he leapt straight up into her arms perfectly well and happy, with all symptoms and pain completely gone. And within two days even all evidence of the abrasions was gone. But, as importantly, my daughter received the evidence that she needed as well.

This article was submitted by Beth Packer, a Christian Science healer from the South Coast of NSW, Australia.

It’s been a year now since Monty left us. We guessed he was about four when he came to us. He had been trained as a bomb squad dog but his boundless energy and unstoppable joy for life rendered him unsuitable for such a delicate and serious career and he was adopted out. His new owners also found him a handful and he moved to a temporary home and then to another longer stay, but these owners too were unable to meet his needs.

When he came to our attention we were looking for a family dog and without even meeting him we somehow knew that he was the right dog for us. He proved to be perfect! He revelled in our long walks through the bush, the runs up our local Mt Taylor and just being one of the boys with our son and his friends.

When our son grew up and left home Monty prompted me from my somewhat sedentary life style and made sure that I had regular long walks. No matter what the weather he was always keen to be out. He brought joy to any activity. He adored us; he would put himself between me and any perceived danger. I have no doubt that he would lay down his life for any one of us. He fiercely protected our home and the variety of cats and chooks and guinea pigs that he saw come and go in our family.

Once a year he had a trip to the vet. When we had had him for about seven years the vet warned us that Monty may not be back next year. He cautioned that dogs of his type were not long lived and that Monty had ‘done well’. The following year we returned and gently the vet suggested that we prepare for Monty not being with us much longer. I was noticing that our walks were getting slower and shorter and most days now he would sleep a deep sleep much of the day. When he was awake he was happy and well, but he slept most of the time. It occurred to me that the vet was right and that he may just slide away.

This idea did not sit well with me and I prayed about it. Not a prayer asking God to make it right, but a prayer that seeks a better understanding of the truth of the situation; a prayer that confirms the good and denies the wrong. I could accept that animals come and go in our lives but I could not accept that life was a downhill slide into oblivion. The qualities we loved about Monty: love, affection, devotion, loyalty, energy, exuberance, joy, protection, selflessness, constancy – these were spiritual qualities and as such they were immortal. They could not be contained or curtailed by a material body. They were independent of matter.

“Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.”

I thought on these ideas for a few weeks applying them to Monty. Gradually over this time he became more wakeful and his old energy levels returned. We were back doing our brisk five kilometer walks and still he had energy. In fact one day my husband asked if I had been praying for Monty. ‘If so’, he said, ‘Could you stop now – he has more energy than I can cope with.’

Monty stayed with us for nearly five more years. His joy for life remained till the end. Even on his last morning he watched me eagerly to see whether I was putting on my walking shoes in case there was the chance of a walk.

I learned many lessons about life from living with Monty but most importantly I learned that we can say NO to suggestions of age.